Question: In the figure, $\angle EAB$ and $\angle ABC$ are right angles, $AB=4,$ $BC=6,$ $AE=8,$ and $\overline{AC}$ and $\overline{BE}$ intersect at $D.$ What is the difference between the areas of $\triangle ADE$ and $\triangle BDC?$ [asy]
pair A,B,C,D,I;
I=(0,8);
A=(0,0);
B=(4,0);
C=(4,6);
D=(2.5,4);
draw(A--B--I--cycle,linewidth(0.7));
draw(A--B--C--cycle,linewidth(0.7));
label("$E$",I,N);
label("$C$",C,N);
label("$D$",D,N);
label("$A$",A,S);
label("$B$",B,S);
label("8",(0,4),W);
label("6",(4,3),E);
label("4",(2,0),S);
[/asy]
Let $x,$ $y,$ and $z$ be the areas of $\triangle ADE,$ $\triangle BDC,$ and $\triangle ABD,$ respectively. The area of $\triangle ABE$ is \[\frac 1 2\cdot 4\cdot 8= 16= x+z,\]and the area of $\triangle BAC$ is \[\frac 1 2\cdot 4\cdot 6 = 12= y+z.\]Subtracting these equations gives $$(x+z) - (y+z) = 16-12\implies x - y = \boxed{4}.$$